Unsustainable power distribution? : women leaders in Polish academia

The results of the research on gender diversity in academia present a mixed image of women’s participation in power structures. There is a large number of studies showing that women at universities encounter the ‘glass ceiling’ in their careers much more frequently than men. The thesis is that in Poland, the number of men and women working in academic institutions is similar, but there is a large disproportion in their numbers at the highest power positions (women being severely underrepresented). The goal of this paper is to analyse the power structures in Polish universities from the viewpoint of gender diversity. The research method is statistical analysis based on the official public data as well as official documents made available by universities. The result of the research is the illustration of the model of an unsustainable power distribution in top management structures of Polish higher education institutions (HEI).